Saturday, August 31, 2013

Awesome Turtle Picture #24


In past installments of Awesome Turtles Pictures, we looked at some character evolutions, such as how "Terrorpin the Terrible" became Tokka, or how Baxter Stockman got fused with a character called "The Fly" to become Baxter-Fly. Today, we're going to look at how some toy design pitches evolved into the recognizable characters we ended up getting.

First up is Peter Laird's initial sketch for "rhino mutant".  Guess who he wound up becoming?


So yes, contrary to popular belief, Eastman and Laird did do the original design and creative work for Fred Wolf/Playmates characters such as Bebop and Rocksteady (think about that next time you accuse them of hating the Fred Wolf/Playmates characters and concepts).  Interestingly, a LOT of these action figure pitch sketches I've got stored away are credited to Peter Laird; I'm having a hard time finding any by Kevin Eastman.  Seems either Laird pitched a lot more toys than Eastman did, or Eastman simply hasn't shared his sketches online like Laird has.

Here's another one labeled simply "duck".  This guy dropped the flight suit, put on a bomber jacket and became Ace Duck by the time his toy was molded (though in the case of the Archie comics, he dropped the flight suit and slipped on a revealing speedo, but the less said about that the better).


Here's a character named "Scalien".  His robotic exoskeleton brace giving him mechanical limbs reminds me a bit of Fishface from the Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon and toyline.  Being a mutant cobra, however, he may be a predecessor to the Playmates character Scale Tail, who dropped the robotic limbs in exchage for, like, snake limbs.  On a snake.  That 80s toyline was weird, man.


These next two sketches are for a character called "The Unknown" (love the name), who is described as being a failed attempt to combine two animals into a single mutation.  He wound up evolving into Mutagen Man, who it seems will be making a comeback in the Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon.



Some wild stuff.  And those are the ones that actually MADE it to the shelves in some form or another.  Believe it or not, but there were design pitches considered too weird for the 80s toyline.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

TMNT (IDW) #25


 Publication date: August 28, 2013

Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Layouts: Kevin Eastman
Art: Mateus Santolouco
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee and Tom Long
Editor: Bobby Curnow

“City Fall, Part Four”

Summary:

At a warehouse, Karai ferrets out a gang of Savate ninja.  The Savate feel they have the upper hand, but it was all an act so that Dark Leo could ambush the Frenchmen.  Karai wants to kill the field leader, but Leo insists she let him return to his boss, Victor, with the warning to stay out of the Shredder’s way.


At the hospital, Casey and April receive a status update from Don and Mike (via Skype).  Casey is blown away by the idea that Leo has switched sides, but Don tells him there’s a lot of that going around, as Hob and Slash seem to be getting buddy-buddy with them, lately.  After the call ends, Casey confesses to April that he feels useless sitting in his hospital bed, missing all the action.  April tells him that she’s just happy to know he’s safe and the two finally share a kiss.

In the alleys outside the Skara Brae, Raph shakes down the hobos Timmy Two-Shoes and Kanada.  He remembers them from the whole briefcase incident and demands they give him the scoop on everything going down in the underworld scene.  Timmy says that there’s a major power struggle in action and it goes all the way up the ladder.


Elsewhere, Victor and the Savate crush a unit of Foot Soldiers.  Victor is approached by the Italian Marcello, who says the Families have called an emergency conference.  Victor has a sit down with Antonio, the head of the Italian Families.  Antonio says he’s concerned about Victor’s confrontational approach to dealing with the Foot Clan and that it’s causing them all trouble.  Marcello speaks out of turn, causing Victor to kill him and tell the families they can either be predators or prey.

At Foot HQ, Leo and Karai deliver news of their successful ambush to the Shredder and Kitsune.  Karai is incensed to learn that it was Leo’s decision to use her as bait to lure out the Savate and she questions Leo’s qualifications for Chunin, as he once again shied away from killing.  Shredder silences Karai and then dismisses them both.  Before leaving, Leo looks at Shredder and Kitsune and has a brief vision of Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen.  Once they leave, Shredder tells Kitsune he is concerned that maintaining his "no kill" order to Leo will only stunt his effectiveness as Chunin.  Kitsune warns Shredder that Leo’s grip on his past life still remains and that forcing him to kill may break their hold on him.  A Foot Soldier delivers a message from Victor: A severed hand with the note “WAR” on it.  Shredder informs Kitsune that the time to keep Leo on a leash is running short.

At the Jones household, Casey’s dad thinks about the trouble his son is in and how useless he’s been as a father.  He declares “No more!” then tears off his shirt, revealing a tattoo of a purple dragon.

At a safe house (marked with the same purple dragon symbol), Splinter has a pow wow with Old Hob.  He says that he will consider joining with Hob’s mutant gang, but only under the condition that Hob help return Leo to sanity.  Hob accepts, though under a condition of his own: Splinter must complete a mission for him as a show of good faith.

Prowling the streets, Raph interrogates crooked Detectives Miller and Corbin, demanding they tell him where the Foot Clan resides.  Raph is pulled away by Don and Mikey, who have had enough of Raph’s tortured loner act.  Raph confesses that he feels responsible for Leo’s predicament, but his brothers tell him that this is no way to get things resolved.  They decide to work together on a plan.

Elsewhere, Shredder and Leo monitor Savate headquarters for their decisive strike.  Shredder orders Leo to fight alongside him, demoting Karai and Alopex to the secondary unit.  Alopex whines to Karai that being reduced to back-up is demeaning.  Karai informs her not to overestimate her value, but that a secondary strategy is never a bad thing to have...  


As she says this, in a secret lab somewhere, two thugs are transformed into a mutant warthog and a mutant rhino.  And they couldn’t be happier about it.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #24.  The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #26.

*The events of TMNT Villains Micro-Series #6: Hun take place between this and next issue.

*Timmy Two-Shoes, Kanada and Detectives Miller and Corbin last appeared in TMNT Annual 2012, which is also when the whole “brief case thing” that Raph references went down.

*This issue was originally published with 5 variant covers: Cover A by Santolouco, Cover B by Eastman and Pattison, Cover RI by Mark Buckingham and Charlie Kirchoff, Cover RE for Jetpack by Eastman and Cover RE Jetpack with Michelangelo bandana.


Review:

Whew!  That was a lot to take in, wasn’t it?  There’s a strange flow to the narrative of “City Fall”, as we drift from segments that are loaded with story and narrative progression, and then into segments that are all action and spectacle.  Toss in the vital interlude chapters in the form of the Villain Micros and you’ve got an arc that moves at a disorienting pace.  It’s not a terrible structure, as it keeps you on your toes, but it certainly feels rather spastic.

The fourth chapter is all about moving things along and only here, at the halfway point, do we finally get to see the gang war come into play.  This thing has been simmering since as far back as TMNT #6; nearly twenty issues ago.  It’s gratifying to finally see the plot thread come into relevance, but yikes that was a long wait.  Still, it’s comforting to know the writing/editing team behind IDW’s TMNT have had such a far-reaching game plan since Day One.  We live in a time where creative teams are swapped out every 6 issues and the “grand scheme” approach has become a relic of a bygone era.  So knowing that this was all planned out two years in advance is impressive.  Just, you know.  It can be a bit of a nerve-grinder to read a plot thread in one issue and then have to wait 20 issues for it to bear fruit.

The Savate ninja are finally taking center stage and man, they had better live up to the hype.  All they’ve been utilized for so far was comedy relief in the 2012 Annual.  I enjoyed that story, but as a first impression, it made the Savate out to be woefully ineffectual criminals.  Having been placed under new management since we last suffered them, however, I expect they won’t be rendered in such humorous capacity again.  I suppose it’s a side effect from leaving a plot point to boil for two years, but it's a gamble; you build a lot of hype and if you fail to deliver, the whole thing could blow up in your face.  If the Savate don’t satisfy 20 issues worth of build-up, well, that’s two years of plotting and two years of reader expectation down the drain.

But before we get all doomy and gloomy in here, the “Krang War” arc was much the same.  General Krang was introduced in TMNT #1 and it wasn't until TMNT #17 that his arc came to a head.  And I loved it.  The build-up was long and excruciating, but the end result was a satisfying read that met my expectations.  No reason the same can’t happen for the Savate, so let’s wait and see what happens (and if you've been reading this comic, waiting is something you ought to be an expert at by now).

Karai is still pouting about rank and respect, and it’s gotten to the point where that’s all she’s been doing for I don’t know how long.  “Grandpaaaaa why don’t you appreciate my accomplishments!?”  “Grandpaaaaaa why do you like Leonardo more than me!?”  “Grandpaaaaaa why can’t I be second in command!?”  “Grandpaaaaaaaa!!”

Jeez, put a lid on it, you big crybaby.

I remarked in my review for the Karai Villain Micro that she lacks a personality beyond being resentful and entitled, so I’m really hoping “City Fall” is where Karai finally grows as a character.  The editor’s remarks in the letters column assures us she’ll be a major player in the second half and we’re already seeing her handiwork at the end of this issue, so I’m content to presume big things await her.

And oh yeah, now there’s a cliffhanger splash page if I ever saw one.  I’ve been anxiously awaiting Bebop and Rocksteady since they first cameod (as humans) in the Raph Micro almost two years ago.  Again, their development has been another long simmering plot point, but one that’s finally come to fruition.  I don’t want to talk about them too much until they’ve finally done something in this series, but man, I can’t wait until they do.

All these paragraphs and I’ve yet to remark on the Turtles.  With so much going on, the non-Leo TMNT kind of fall into the cracks of this issue.  Don and Mikey are reduced to giving Casey and April status updates and reigning in Raph’s renegade act.  The end result is that they decide to work together to get Leo back, an obvious conclusion I would have thought they’d have been able to come to without making a big production about it.  Really, Raph’s rebelling just serves to remind readers that the surplus of characters introduced in the 2012 Annual still exist.

Anyhow, to wrap things up (I haven’t even bothered with developments like Casey and April locking lips, Splinter and Hob playing odd couple, the Purple Dragon foreshadowing or Shredder revealing that he ordered Leo not to kill anybody), after last issue’s lack of story, this issue just unloads the plot developments on you.  But I’m digging seeing all these long stewing storylines finally pay off, so hey, bring em on.


Grade: B- (as in, “But the editor’s note at the end said Pizzaface is never gonna happen.  I am disappointed beyond the realm of consolation”.)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

TMNT (Dreamwave) #5


Publication date: October, 2003

Written by: Peter David
Pencils by: Lesean Thomas
Inks: Erik Sander, Rob Armstrong
Colors: Shaun Curtis
Flats: Kenny Li
Letters: Matt Moylan
VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee
President: Pat Lee
Cover: Lesean Thomas, Erik Sander, Edwin Garcia, Rob Ruffolo

“Shadows of the Mind’s Eye”

Summary:

Brooding on a rooftop, Raph is ticked that he can’t be thankd by the people he helps; that ninja have to stay concealed in the shadow.  Seeing a cat stuck in a tree, Raph discretely throws his sai, cutting the branch so the cat can land safely in the arms of the little girl (Pammy) below.  Raph figures he deserves one small thanks; just one.  A vision of Splinter warns him not to, but Raph approaches Pammy anyway.


Fishing for praise, he tells the little girl that he cut the branch and saved her cat.  Pammy is grateful, then runs back inside her apartment to tell her mom all about “Raffle”.  Listening in, Raph hears the mother (Sheila Shaunston) tell Pammy not to lie and then a smacking sound.  Thinking Mrs. Shaunston is abusing her daughter, Raph leaps in through the window to yell at her.  Turns out Mrs. Shaunston was just swatting flies, but one look at Raph causes her to faint.  Raph panics and calls 911, but Pammy tells him that her mom faints all the time and that she’ll get better.  Raph decides to leave before he makes things worse.

The next night, Raph comes back to the stoop outside the apartment to check on Pammy.  Pammy tells him that when her mom told the paramedics about “an armored frog”, they took her away to the Belleview Psychiatric Hospital.  According to her daddy, Pammy may not be seeing her mom for a long time.  Raph promises Pammy he’ll make things right and leaves.

At Belleview, Dr. Benton is examining Mrs. Shaunston.  He hand waves away all her claims about “an armored frog” as nothing but a symbolic hallucination; the same sort of stuff he hears day in and day out.  He has a nurse escort Mrs. Shaunston to her room and then gets down to her paperwork. 


Suddenly, Raph appears in the doctor’s chair.  He threatens the doctor, telling him to release Mrs. Shaunston with a clean bill of health or else.  Dr. Benton responds by zapping Raph with a taser.  As Raph collapses, immobilized, Dr. Benton proceeds to have a mental breakdown.  He now sees that all the things his patients told him they saw were real.  He proceeds to put a “CURED” stamp on Mrs. Shaunston’s file, then casually exists the office.

Raph struggles to his feet and is greeted by the sound of gunshots from the roof.  A nurse outside the office says that Dr. Benton has lost it and gone to the roof with his deer hunting rifle.  Out in the street, pedestrians scramble as bullets strike everywhere.  Among them is Pammy, who has come to Belleview with her father to visit her mother.  Dr. Benton lines Pammy up in his sights, but before he can squeeze the trigger, Raph knocks him out.


Back at Pammy’s apartment, the whole family is reunited for a trip to the zoo.  Pammy tells her mom that “Raffle” was actually a nice armored frog.  Mrs. Shaunston says that, at the very least, he tried very hard.  Below them in the sewer, Raph is pouting over the chain reaction of misery his presence caused.  Splinter appears next to him to remind him that they do not hide in the shadows, but live within them as a part of them.  Raph asks Splinter if he ever wants more out of life.  Splinter tells Raph that wanting more isn’t his job, it’s his son’s.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #4.  The story continues in TMNT (Dreamwave) #6.

*This issue also included a promotional poster insert for “T4: The Turtlenator”.


Review:

Dreamwave finally takes a hint and gives the readers their first completely new story… And it’s more introspective character study stuff.  Whoopee.

Unlike the previous four issues, though, this one has the benefit of not trying to force a new story into the framework of an existing cartoon episode.  As a result, we get a pretty clean narrative from beginning to end.  As a oneshot story about Raph and his misguided attempts to get some recognition for his good deeds, it’s actually pretty amusing.  The domino effect of everything getting worse and worse the more Raph tries to “fix” things makes for a funny series of events.  Or, at least, I hope they were intended to be funny and not completely serious.

I think what bugs me with this story is more that David didn’t seem to have a clear idea how to end it.  The whole concept is that by involving himself, Raph only makes things worse and worse for everyone.  So you would think that the solution would be for Raph to suppress his ego and let things work themselves out.  But no, the lesson is obscured because Raph proceeds to meddle and meddle until things finally reach a more or less neutral position.

Well, “neutral” might not be the word for it, as Dr. Benton’s life is now completely destroyed because of Raph’s interference.  David struggles to find a villain for the issue and eventually settles on Dr. Benton.  But Dr. Benton never really does anything wrong until Raph drives him insane.  Up until that point he was just a guy working in a psychiatric hospital helping people with delusions on a day to day basis.  Okay, sure, he didn’t believe Mrs. Shaunston’s story about “an armored frog”, but why should he?

And then there’s that awkward, clumsy bit where Dr. Benton decides to stamp “CURED” on Mrs. Shaunston’s case file just to conveniently resolve her conflict.  Because that’s what it takes to get released from a psychiatric hospital, right?  A big red stamp on your folder that says “CURED”?

At the center of “Shadows of the Mind’s Eye” there’s a decent story, but it’s fumbled about way too much.  It’s hard to sympathize with Raph, because of how selfish and petty he's acting.  It’s hard to feel that a lesson has been learned at the end, because Raph solves the problem by doing the same stuff that caused it in the first place.  And it’s hard to feel like Raph saved the day at the end, anyway, when his actions drove a normal person nuts.

Dreamwave has mercifully pared down the coloring crew to just two people; Li on flats and Curtis on colors.  With less cooks in the kitchen, the pages are actually comprehensible for a change.  The colors are brighter and the lines are sharper; thanks in large part, I’m sure, to a 50% decrease in useless photoshop filters.  That aside, many of the same problems remain, such as everything being drawn separately on a tablet and combined after the fact, blah blah blah looks like shit.

Though man, Thomas is not very good at drawing facial expressions appropriate to the situation.  Here’s Pammy, telling Raph that her mother has been committed to a psychiatric hospital:


Why is she giving Raph the bedroom eyes?  And really, if you took that head all by itself, would you think it belonged to a 5 year-old?  Because it’s supposed to.

Anyhow, issue #5 is supposedly where Dreamwave’s TMNT comic turns a corner and improves.  However, it feels more like one step forward, two steps back.  Old problems are solved in exchange for brand new ones.  But who cares?  There’s only two issues left, anyway.


Grade: D+ (as in, “Decided to give the extra ‘plus’ there because of an included Simpsons quote and nothing else.  ‘Can’t sleep, clown will eat me’.”)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

TMNT New Animated Adventures #2


Publication date: August 21, 2013

Story: Kenny Byerly
Art: Dario Brizuela
Colors: Heather Breckel
Letters: Shawn Lee
Edits: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

Down in the sewer lair, Leo is subjecting his brothers and April to an all-day “Space Heroes” marathon.  The others are spared when a storm blows through, disabling the satellite dish.  Leo curses nature, but Splinter reminds him that nature is something they are all a part of and that its forces should never be trifled with.  He says that this fact is best exemplified by the tree in their dojo, which survives on minimal sunlight and water through the tiniest drainage gate in the street.  Suddenly, the TV turns back on long enough for a news report from Carlos Chiang O’Brien *click* Gambe.  Apparently, an entire block on East 85th Street has been overtaken by vines.  The Turtles and April pile into the Shellraiser and head out to investigate.

Arriving on the scene, April is immediately attacked by killer vines, but cuts herself free with her bladed fans.  Donnie finds people trapped in strange pods and comes to the conclusion that Snakeweed is back in town.  The Turtles and April start freeing the people before they can be turned into fertilizer, but Donnie calculates that they could never reach all the people on the block in time.  If they hope to save everyone, they’ll have to stop Snakeweed (as he’s the “root” of the infestation).


Snakeweed obliges by bursting through a wall Kool-Aid style and attacking.  As the Turtles take on the mutant plant-man, April keeps Gambe from filming them by stealing his mic.  Snakeweed escapes, swearing that once his “bud” blooms, humanity will be overrun with more plant mutants like himself.  Donnie spots the bud in question on a rooftop and figures it must be packed with Snakeweed spores.  Leo tells Raph and Donnie to go after the bud and keep it from opening while he and Mike try to take Snakeweed out.  April, meanwhile, is left behind to tend to the crowd.

Donnie and Raph proceed to fight their way up to the roof where the bud is stationed.  They have some trouble with killer vines, but Raph’s brute force is enough to get them past any obstacles.  Upon reaching the roof, Raph attempts to turn that brute force onto the bud, but Donnie stops him.  He warns Raph that if they burst the bud, the spores will spread.  Before Donnie can calculate a way to keep the bud from blossoming, more killer vines attack them.


Elsewhere, Leo and Mike track Snakeweed to Central Park.  They challenge the plant-man, but he easily takes them down.  Crashing into a sign advertising the turtle habitat at Central Park Zoo, Leo comes up with a plan.  He and Mikey proceed to lure Snakeweed to the turtle pond and keep him submerged in the water.  Consequently, this “overwaters” Snakeweed and all his killer vines and pods spread throughout the city wither and die.

With the vines dead, Donnie and Raph free themselves.  They’re met with an unpleasant sight, as the bud is about to bloom.  Thinking fast, Donnie and Raph grab a tarp and throw it over the bud so the spores cannot be released.


Back in Central Park, Mikey ensnares Snakeweed in his kussari-gama chain.  Leo then launches a grappling hook onto the tallest tree in the area and attaches the recoil mechanism to the chain.  Snakeweed is hoisted up to the top of the tree and immediately struck by a blast of lightning from the storm.  Snakeweed falls to the ground, turning to ash.

Later, with the storm passed, the Turtles and April resign themselves to the “Space Heroes” marathon.  Leo decides to pass on the marathon and goes to see Splinter (the Turtles immediately fight over the remote).  Sitting beneath the tree in the dojo, he tells Splinter that he was right about the forces of nature, which saved them all in the end.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT New Animated Adventures #1.  The story continues in TMNT New Animated Adventures #3.

*Snakeweed was shown transforming people into fertilizer in the episode “New Girl in Town”.  April received her bladed fan weapons from Splinter in “Baxter's Gambit”.

*Coincidentally, just two months before this issue, Panini Magazines over in Europe released a very similar TMNT vs. Snakeweed story in TMNT Magazine (Panini) #2.  It even ends with Snakeweed getting defeated by a bolt of lightning.

*This issue was originally published with 2 variant covers: Regular Cover by Brizuela, Subscription Variant by Ben Bates.


Review:

The Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon is by a wide margin the most “mutant of the week” animated series the TMNT have ever received.  People like to look back at the Fred Wolf cartoon as being a nonstop action figure-shilling machine for Playmates, but truth be told, that show was surprisingly reserved in its use of mutant villains.  They really didn’t show up all that often.  The Nick cartoon, on the other hand?  It got to the point where that show was creating a new mutant every week.  Don’t get me wrong, I LIKE most of the mutant villains the show has introduced, but c’mon guys.  Pace yourselves.

With that in mind, I do wonder how frequently New Animated Adventures will be utilizing these established villains?  Will it employ new villains?  Will it reintroduce classic villains the cartoon has no plans on using?  Only time will tell, I suppose.

In terms of the mutant baddies introduced in the cartoon, Snakeweed was the first and, to be honest, has probably been my least favorite of the bunch (next to maybe Spider Bytez; not even a voice over from Lewis Black can save that character from his terrible name and ridiculous design).  Snakeweed lacks the humorous quirks that have made the other mutants fun to watch.  He’s just so generic.

So needless to say, he doesn’t make for a very compelling enemy even in comic book form.  To Byerly’s credit, he pulls something of a fakeout, with the issue starting out like a retread of “New Girl in Town” before transitioning into a fresh scheme from Snakeweed.  But even if Snakeweed’s plan is grander this time around, the bad guy is still boring as all get out.

I dunno, I guess not all the villains can be “funny”, but when it comes to making them stand out… funny does certainly help.  Snakeweed’s not exactly an A-class foe of the TMNT as it is, so he could probably use an injection of personality.  Hell, even Spider Bytez has that “obnoxious jerk” thing going for him.

What I dug more with this issue was how every character got their own little moment to shine.  Raph’s brute force got him and Donnie through the building.  Don’s ingenuity kept the bud from spreading its spores even after it bloomed.  Leo’s resourcefulness took Snakeweed down using only the elements at hand.  And Mikey… Eh.  He helped.

April also seems to have learned a lesson from the previous issue.  The Turtles repeatedly tell her to be careful and stay where it’s safe and she never argues the point with them.  She received a bit of a humbling last issue, learning that she still isn’t quite ready for the same level of action as the Turtles.  Rather than have her conveniently forget everything she just learned a story ago, Byerly has the effect last into this installment.  It’s a subtle thing, but greatly appreciated.

Grievances with Snakeweed’s quality as a villain aside, New Animated Adventures is still good all-ages reading.  The self-contained issues feel like condensed episodes of the cartoon and just about everyone has a strong voice and personality.  Brizuela’s art is as fluid as ever and Breckel continues to be a great match (though she colors Raph’s bandana orange a couple times in this one).

And hey, “Space Heroes”.  That is the best running gag in the whole show.


Grade: B- (as in, “But imagine my disappointment when even though I’m a subscriber at my comic shop, I didn’t get the Ben Bates subscription variant cover.  That was a real bummer”.)

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

TMNT Villains Micro-Series #5: Karai


Publication date: August 21, 2013

Written by: Erik Burnham
Art by: Cory Smith
Colors by: Ian Herring
Letters by: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

At the Foot Clan’s training dojo in Westchester, Karai seeks the elderly instructor Toshiro for council.  Having been demoted from her position as the Foot’s second in command, she is unsure of her own future and is concerned about where her grandfather, the Shredder, is taking the Clan.  Toshiro suggests that to find her path for the future, Karai should look to the past.


The Past.  Under the guidance of her father, Oroku Yori, the Foot Clan has become a more modern criminal organization, more concerned with intimidation through lawyers than the old ways.  Even as a little girl, Karai is disgusted by her father’s complacency (and his habit of being bossed around by his lackey, Nakamura).  One day, while looking through her father’s vast library, she discovers “The Secret of the Foot”, an ancient text describing the Clan’s history and secret ninjutsu arts.  Karai spends the rest of her formative years studying the book in private while maintaining the façade of the perfect daughter for her parents.

One night, Karai has a dream.  She is approached by the spirit of Oroku Saki (who instructs her to address him as grandfather).  Karai believes him to just be a part of her dream and nothing more, but Saki slashes her across the hand and the pain proves that he is a true spirit.  Saki entices her to embrace the old ways of the Foot Clan by overthrowing her father and using the instructions in “The Secret of the Foot” to restore him to life.  Karai agrees to bring Saki back, but only after she has restored the honor of the Foot Clan on her own.  Karai awakens from her dream and finds scars from Saki’s attack on her hand, proving that she didn’t imagine the whole thing.


Karai spends the next few years gathering thugs and lackeys to train in the ninja arts.  She begins secretly hitting all of her father’s operations, crippling his incarnation of the Foot.  She then kills Nakamura as payback for his years of disrespect.  Eventually, the stress of trying to run his failed criminal empire gets the best of Yori and he dies.  Karai then swoops in and takes command of the Foot, reshaping it back into the ninja clan it once was.

The present.  Karai’s council with Toshiro is interrupted by Dark Leo.  Leo is unimpressed with Toshiro’s productivity, as the Shredder requires more bodies to throw at his enemies.  Karai defends Toshiro, but her disrespectful tone offends Leo, who reminds her of her place: Beneath him.  He brow beats Karai, who uses all her restraint not to attack him.  Seeing her resentment, Leo offers her the opportunity to fight him and prove that she’s better.  Karai eagerly accepts his offer and the two do battle.  As they fight, Karai senses something different about Leo; that he’s holding back his killer instinct.  He has many opportunities to kill her, but passes them all.  She sees this weakness and, thinking ahead, elects to throw the fight.  Karai accepts her place beneath Leo and the Turtle walks out, believing he has made his point.  Karai tells Toshiro that she now sees what she must do to take control of her future.


Two days later, at the Shorai Research and Development facility, Karai gathers a gang of thugs who are eager to gain power.  She tells them that in order to gain that power, they must prove their worth.  One thug (with purple sunglasses and a Mohawk) asks what they have to do to pass her test.  She strikes him and says that the power will belong to the last one standing.


Turtle Tips:

*This issue takes place between TMNT Villains Micro-Series #4: Alopex and TMNT (IDW) #25.

*Karai was shown (in a flashback) resurrecting Oroku Saki with the “Secret of the Foot” in Secret History of the Foot Clan #4.

*The two thugs seen amongst Karai’s congregation at the end (Bebop and Rocksteady) last appeared in TMNT Villains Micro-Series #4: Alopex.

*This issue was originally published with 2 variant covers: Regular Cover by Tyler Walpole, Cover RI by Smith.


Review:

Karai, Karai, Karai.  Now there’s a character who has undergone quite an evolution since her debut back in 1992.

When Mirage introduced her, she was an equal to the Shredder in terms of rank and his replacement as leader of the Foot.  She shared no connection with Oroku Saki beyond that and was a fairly sympathetic character; not really a villain (she fought alongside the Turtles more than she fought against them).  The 4Kids cartoon introduced her most notable claim to fame, sort of fusing her with Pimiko of the Image TMNT series, turning her into the Shredder’s (adopted) daughter.  This aspect of her character would stick and become so well known, most folks incorrectly cite it as part of her Mirage history.  Her sympathetic qualities would remain and she’d undergo quite an arc across the 4Kids cartoon.  Likewise, the recent Nickelodeon cartoon has been doing wonders with her parentage and friend/foe relationship, but considering how recent the season one finale was to the writing of this review, I won’t elaborate at the risk of spoiling a great twist.  I will say that the Nickelodeon Karai is quickly becoming my favorite incarnation of the character, stupid hairdo and all.

Then there’s IDW Karai.  While the familial relationship to Oroku Saki remains, any traces of her sympathetic attitude toward the Turtles have been absent.  Even the “granddaughter” aspect has been superficial at best, as she’s shown nothing but resentment toward Saki rather than devotion (he had nothing to do with raising her, in this version).  So with her two most familiar qualities removed by IDW’s writers, this incarnation of Karai is also only superficial: Karai by name, but lacking any of her fundamentals.

And yet, as I pointed out in the beginning of this refresher course, Karai has always been a rather malleable character, prone to being transformed at the whims of the authors.  Still, without any fundamental Karai-isms to latch onto, this version of the character has rung rather hollow these past couple years.  Just a lot of arm-folding and pouting every time Shredder tells her to button her lip.

Burnham endeavors to flesh IDW’s vision of Karai out with this long overdue origin story which ties into his Secret History of the Foot Clan miniseries rather well.  We learn about Karai’s childhood, how Oroku Saki manipulated her into bringing him back from the dead and how she wrested control of the Foot Clan from her incompetent father.  It’s a very informative story and, character-wise, you can appreciate Karai’s perpetual frustration and resentment throughout past issues just a little bit more.  Shredder encouraged her to bring him back by feeding on her love of the past, but then proceeded to demote and demean her for not looking to the future.  In the end, she learns a valuable lesson about balancing tradition with ambition (and also that Dark Leo’s a prick) and important story arcs are moved forward.

And yet, Karai doesn’t feel like a richer character for any of it.  At best, she’s just another Starscream; a bitter second-in-command determined to seize leadership at any cost.  Her motivations (vengeance against Shredder for manipulating her) feel especially redundant on the heels of the Alopex microseries, which ended on almost precisely the same note.  If anything, all these micros and the main series seem to be accomplishing is diminishing the Shredder’s position as a competent villain.  I mean, just look at how he’s setting himself up!  He’s put all his faith in a brainwashed nemesis to lead him to glory, whilst simultaneously alienating his two trusted henchwomen to the point where they BOTH want to kill him.

Fred Wolf Shredder would be embarrassed.

Getting back to Karai, even though she’s a character who is always evolving, I think it’s important to maintain past elements into each incarnation.  Discarding her devotion to the Shredder and sympathy for the Turtles insures we won’t be sitting through another retelling of Karai’s crisis of conscience, but it also eliminates the only qualities to her character that were ever any interesting.  Take it all away and we’re left with just another scheming female ninja second-in-command out to overthrow the Shredder… and dammit, we’ve already got one of those!

On the subject of the art, Cory Smith turns in some lovely pages.  I may not be kind in my appraisal of IDW Karai’s character, but her design is my favorite and Smith has given one of her best renderings so far.  At times I felt her features were a little too sharp for the youthfulness the script was trying to get across (she looks a bit older than I think she was meant to be), but beyond that I’ve few complaints.  The action layouts were well done during the fight with Dark Leo, though I think the centerpiece to this issue was the page in which Karai assassinates Nakamura with her bow and arrow.  Herring’s colors complement Smith’s lines nicely.  I particularly liked the softer pallet of the 3-page dream sequence.  It looked fuzzy and washed out, but only subtly so.  It’s nice when a colorist doesn’t overdo it.

Karai’s microseries left me feeling rather empty.  As an epilogue to The Secret History of the Foot Clan, it was certainly enlightening; straightening out the timeline of the Foot Clan’s resurgence and filling in any leftover narrative blanks.  But regarding the intended purpose, to give Karai some extra character, I felt it did just the opposite, robbing her of the elements which have made her stand out these past ten years.


Grade: C- (as in, “Could the graffiti on page 5, ‘Mutanimals Live’, be a sign of things to come?  Now THAT’S got me interested”.) 

 

Monday, August 19, 2013

Raph n' Casey vs. Pizzaface



Publication date: August 17, 2009

Story: Zac Gorman and Scott Wygmans
Script and layouts: Zac Gorman
Pencils and inks: Scott Wygmans

"Raph n' Casey vs. Pizzaface"

Summary:

At a pizza parlor in New York, Casey Jones and Raphael sit down for some lunch.  Unbeknownst to them, the waiter taking their order is actually a Foot Soldier robot (cleverly disguised with a fake moustache).


The Foot Soldier delivers the order to the pizzeria's chef... Pizzaface!  Pizzaface prepares the pie in his usual unsanitary fashion, but adds a secret topping: TCRI Mutagen.

The Foot Soldier brings the pizza to Casey and Raph, who are revolted at just a glance.  Finally seeing through the Foot's clever ruse, Casey attacks the Foot Soldier, driving his fist through its robot head.  As Casey goes nuts, Raph taps him on the shoulder and alerts him to a much larger problem.  The pizza has mutated into a gargantuan, grotesque tentacle monster out for blood.


Turtle Tips:

*Wygmans made this comic available to view over at Go Green Machine.org back in 2009.  You can check it out here.


Review:

Man, I love this little comic.  It's a brief 3-pager, but Gorman and Wygmans put plenty of energy and personality into every panel.  You wind up spending so much time digesting each page that the comic feels three times its own length.

In case you haven't heard, Pizzaface is one of my all-time favorite characters who has never been utilized in any form of TMNT fiction.  So naturally, I ate this comic up (figuratively speaking; it's hard to maintain an appetite with Pizzaface around).  Gorman's script is pretty much a precise adaptation of Pizzaface's M.O. from the profile on the back of his action figure card; that he travels from pizzeria to pizzeria, poisoning pies in an attempt to ambush the Turtles through their one weakness.  The addition of a Foot Soldier robot disguised with nothing more than a fake moustache, and the scheme working, was a great callback to the absurdity of the Fred Wolf and Playmates TMNT universe.  While the comic is mildly violent and has some decidedly non-kid-friendly trappings, it doesn't for one second take itself too seriously for its own inspiration.

One of the more impressive aspects to this comic is that the entire thing is done in pantomime.  The story is told through the composition and the character expressions, but you never have any trouble picking up on the jokes or the narrative.  I think the best sequence is on page 2, when Pizzaface receives the order and bakes the tainted pie.  Little details make the whole scene, such as Pizzaface's "Municipal Waste" t-shirt or (my hands down favorite panel) the way he smokes three cigarettes at once while he waits for the pizza to finish cooking.  Despite an extremely chaotic art style (that may put off some), the comic reads really intuitively and the layouts flow smoothly.  I think the only panel that felt like a "waste" was the second panel of page 1, focusing on all the weirdos populating the pizzeria (didn't seem to serve much purpose and panel 1 transitions to panel 3 perfectly fine without it).

Anyhow, short and sweet as it may be, this is one of my favorite TMNT fan comics.  If you haven't seen it yet, then check it out.  It's pretty damn cool.


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Mid-afternoon of the Living Dead


Publication date: December, 1991
Originally published in: Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #2

Story and art: Dave Garcia
Color: Justin Hampton

“Mid-afternoon of the Living Dead”

Summary:

Hip zombie host Abner Cadaver welcomes the readers to another installment of Oogah Boogah Theater.  Tonight’s story is called “Mid-Afternoon of the Living Dead”…

A meteor lands in the Ever-Rest Cemetery, but it’s no ordinary space rock.  The meteorite turns out to be an alien canister containing strange worms.  The night-crawlers work their way into the soil where the coffins reside.  The next morning, a pair of intrepid meteorite hunters trace the trajectory of the meteor to the cemetery.  They get out of their van to hunt for it, but are immediately attacked by flesh-eating zombies who have been resurrected by the worms.


At a nearby lake, the Ninja Turtles are on a fishing vacation.  Sadly, Mikey ate all their bait (mistaking it for anchovies), leaving them in a fix.  Raph sees a local shambling toward them and decides to ask him if he has any bait.  The man turns out to be a zombie, and what’s worse, he’s being accompanied by dozens of other flesh-eaters.  The Turtles whip out their weapons and make quick work of the undead creatures.

Later, the Turtles enjoy their fishing vacation, using the alien worms they retrieved from the zombie corpses as bait.  Abner Cadaver closes the story by reminding the readers that you are what you eat, and when the Turtles eventually sit down for a fish dinner, they’ll be indirectly eating the alien worms themselves.


Turtle Tips:

*The meteorite hunters, Kevin and Pete, are parodies of TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (duh).

*Despite being a Mirage publication, the Turtles are wearing the multi-colored bandanas of their cartoon counterparts.  This was typical in many stories featured throughout Turtle Soup (Vol. 2).


Review:

Dave Garcia was another artist who popped up on various TMNT projects in the early ‘90s, was good, and then quietly disappeared from the franchise.  He wore a few hats while working on the series; mostly as an inker on early issues of Archie’s TMNT Adventures, but he tried his hand at penciling a few issues, too.  I thought his style was pretty solid, but he just didn’t get very many opportunities to work on the book, and several of his issues were during the dull cartoon episode-adaptation era.

“Mid-afternoon of the Living Dead” gives Garcia the chance to go a little bonkers, though offered only a scant 5 pages to do so.  He races through the story so quickly there hardly isn’t one at all (alien worms create zombies, TMNT kill zombies, the end).  I can’t really hold it against him, though, because again: 5 pages.

The faux Crypt-Keeper hosting segments with Abner Cadaver were a nice touch, adding a little oomph to what would otherwise be a rather bland short.  A bit of a waste, considering Garcia never did anymore of these “Oogah Boogah Theater” shorts, but it might have been a neat recurring feature had Turtle Soup survived past 4 issues.  I sure would have enjoyed more “Oogah Boogah Theater” segments than “Green-Grey Sponge-Suit Sushi Turtles” segments, that’s for sure.

Grade: N (as in, "Night of the Creeps.  If you've seen it, then you'll know why I just brought it up".)
 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

TMNT (Dreamwave) #4


Publication date: September 2003

Written by: Peter David
Pencils by: Lesean Thomas
Inks: Erik Sander, Rob Armstrong
Colors: Shaun Curtis, Yvonne Poon, Pamil Sunga, Alan Wang
Flats: Kenny Li
Letters and design: Matt Moylan
VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee
President: Pat Lee

“Meet Casey Jones”

Summary:

In his apartment, Casey Jones is pumping iron and listening to his neighbors next door.  The dad is tired and irritable with his son.  Casey flashes back to one of his last memories of his father…


The past.  Casey is a little kid, worried that his dad should give into the Purple Dragons and their protection racket, lest something bad happen.  Mr. Jones becomes violent and tells Casey that he’s playing on HIS team and that a Jones never gives in (nearly punching Casey in a violent rage).  Mr. Jones hears something and figures it’s the Purple Dragons breaking into his store.

Casey snaps out of his flashback and decides that it’s time to make the Purple Dragons pay.  He puts on his hockey mask and golf bag full of blunt instruments and goes to work.

The past.  Casey watches as his father’s store burns to the ground.  The Purple Dragon leader, Hun, then smacks Casey aside with the encouragement that his father pay up.

Prowling the streets, Casey spots some punks about to mug a woman (mother of the kid next door).  He beats them up, but even after they surrender, he continues to wail on them with his hockey stick.  Casey is suddenly subdued by Raphael, who tells him to chill out.  Casey isn’t in the business of being told what to do and bashes Raph over the head before chasing after the fleeing punks.

The past.  Casey breaks a bottle and stabs Hun in the leg with it.  Furious, Hun has his thugs beat Casey to a pulp.  Before being thrown out of the hospital because he lacked insurance, Casey is diagnosed with brain damage from the beating.  Shortly after that, Mr. Jones goes searching for Hun to get revenge and vanishes.  Casey’s mom then goes searching for her husband and vanishes, too.


Casey continues beating on the thugs until Raph intervenes.  Raph tells him that his heart is in the right place, but he’s meting out punishment with too much violence and not enough thought.  Casey still isn’t listening and the two of them thrown down.  Raph knocks Casey down, but Casey hits him with a surprise attack and flees on his motorcycle.  Before he leaves, he tells Raph to meet him in Central Park on Friday night to finish things.

Climbing the fire escape to his apartment, Casey overhears his neighbor about to get violent with his wife and son.  Casey smashes through the window, prepared to beat the man down.  The man stands between Casey and his family and vows to protect them from the vigilante.  Casey realizes what Raph was trying to tell him and runs away.


In his apartment next door, Casey overhears the family telling a cop about the masked psycho that tried to kill them and the son calls his father a hero for protecting them.  Casey drifts off into a delusional state, reassuring himself that his father and mother are still alive, just waiting for Casey to clean the streets of all the Purple Dragons before they can return.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #3.  The story continues in TMNT (Dreamwave) #5.

*This issue was adapted from the 4Kids TMNT animated series episode “Meet Casey Jones”.


Review:

This is probably the first issue of Dreamwave’s TMNT comic to actually be readable.  The story follows Casey Jones and gives us deeper glimpses of his past, while the Turtles are again reduced to cameo status, but I think the difference in this issue is that it doesn’t feel like there’s a larger story we’re missing.  Yes, there is an entirely separate subplot from the 4Kids episode that got excised (Raph coping with his own anger after nearly braining Mikey), but David wisely ignores all that crap and gives us just ONE plot to follow.  No confusion about stuff being referenced that we aren’t seeing; just a single coherent storyline.  A Dreamwave first, ladies and gentlemen.

While it’s still the familiar story from the 4Kids episode “Meet Casey Jones” (or Raphael microseries #1, if we're being honest), it’s interesting to actually SEE the relationship between Casey and his father that we’re told was so important, but the cartoon never bothered to explore.  There’s a rather shocking revelation involved, as we learn that the father Casey worshiped was really a violent, stubborn, frightening man.  There’s nothing pleasant about him, as he calls women stupid, puts his pride before the safety of his family and proceeds to teach Casey a lesson about courage by nearly punching a hole through his head. 

I think this did a decent job of illustrating Casey’s delusional state, as the person he’s describing isn’t the person he’s remembering.  In fact, it was satisfactory enough that the issue REALLY didn’t need to end on Casey desperately trying to convince himself that his parents are still alive and watching him and waiting to come back, but only after he cleans up the streets.  That was laying it on a bit thick (likewise with the overstatement of his brain damage; a briefer mention would have gotten the point across just as well).  I did like the dichotomy of the neighbor family; a violent, irritable father neglecting/abusing his son, but the son looking up to him regardless of treatment.

It’s likely a matter of coincidence, but a few elements from David’s expansion of the “Meet Casey Jones” episode seem to have seeped their way into other TMNT continuities.  Mirage’s Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #56 adapted the idea of Hun killing Casey’s father and burning down his store (something the 4Kids cartoon writers thought up), but the issue also incorporated the idea that Casey took on brain damage after the violent beating he took from the Purple Dragons.  To my knowledge, David is the first author to ever pitch the idea that Casey is legitimately mentally handicapped.  There’s also the portrayal of Casey’s father as a violent brute; something IDW adopted early on with TMNT (IDW) #1.  The two Mr. Joneses don’t share any similarities beyond that, but being a child-endangering scumbag seems to be a consistent portrayal for the character.

So yeah, on a script level, this was a pretty solid issue.  It overstates some stuff to get the point across, but all in all, it’s actually a GOOD expansion of a 4Kids episode.  So what brings it down?

The lousy art, of course.

I’ve gone on ad nauseum about Lesean Thomas’s numerous failings as an artist and I’m really in no mood to repeat the same old critiques.  All I will say is that he isn’t getting any better; Thomas is not an artist in any hurry to improve his craft.  In fact, believe it or not, he may actually be getting worse.  He copy-pastes the splash on page 1 and recycles it for the last page of the issue, repeating it to fill 4 panels.  Now, I understand the intent: to illustrate how the same pose can represent both grim determination and pathetic defeat, distinguished only by the context of the inner monologue bubbles.  But for the love of god, REDRAW the damn panel!  Even if there are just subtle differences between the two versions of the same basic layout, it still keeps the damn thing from looking like a cheap, lazy shortcut.

Also, hey, scroll back on up there and take a closer look at that scan of Casey getting kicked by Raph.  Notice how when he goes flying his bag is over his right shoulder, but when he lands it's over his left shoulder?  Crap like that everywhere.
 
And once again, we’ve got 5 colorists and 2 inkers just to get a single issue onto the stands.  This thing is a mess of conflicting lighting, toning and photoshop effects between pages and panels.  Worse yet, most of the colorists on this issue are completely new to the book, making the look even less consistent than usual.  A competent publisher would assign a dedicated colorist to a title to maintain a steady look; that’s just a fundamental.  But then, Dreamwave went bankrupt for a reason.


Grade: D+ (as in, “Dreamwave once again posts fanart in the letters column that looks considerably better than the art in the actual comic”.)

 

Friday, August 16, 2013

TMNT Fan-Comic!

Publication date: July 8, 2013
 
Story and art by Caleb Goellner and Buster Moody
 
"TMNT Fan-Comic!"
 
 
Summary:
 
A trio of Purple Dragons are absolutely tickled that they've finally been invited to the annual Foot Clan BBQ.  Only the cream of the criminal crop get invites and the punks figure they're moving up in the world.
 
Unfortunately, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Splinter have chosen to crash the shindig, pummeling the stooges before they can even get their homemade potato salad to the picnic table.  Splinter is especially livid, feeling that the Foot have committed an injustice so great, it requires the Turtles to make an uncharacteristic daytime appearance.



The TMNT lay waste to the gathering of super villains: Leo slices his way through some robot foes (Metalhead, Super Rocksteady, Mighty Bebop), Don flips a picnic table of hungry Foot Soldiers onto the unsuspecting Shogun Shoate/Chote, Mike cleanses the swimming pool (Merdude, Scale Tail, Armaggon) and Raph silences the musical entertainment (Antrax, DJ Krang and the truly villainous Vanilla Ice).

Finally, they confront Chef Shredder and trash his grill.  Why the outrage?  They're incensed that the Shredder would throw a pizza party and not invite them!  Shredder corrects them: This is a barbecue, not a pizza party.  Embarrassed, Splinter and the Turtles slink away as all the villains groan in pain and confusion.


Turtle Tips:

*Buster Moody made this comic viewable over at his blog.  Check it out!  Included are high quality download links, as well.  While you're at it, check out their creator owned comic, Task Force Rad Squad.


Review: 

There are a lot of great official TMNT comics out there, but I thought I'd extend myself a bit and spotlight some of my favorite fan creations (which are often just as entertaining, if not moreso, than many official publications).  This recent offering from Caleb Goellner and Buster Moody really caught my eye and I think it deserves some attention.

Look, I dig just about every iteration of the Ninja Turtle franchise, but I hold a special place in my heart for the weird micro-continuity of the Playmates action figure line.  That shit was just WEIRD; often too weird for even the Fred Wolf cartoon or Archie TMNT Adventures comic book, as they rarely included the toyline characters.  As an end result, many of the bizarre mutants with elaborate backgrounds (chronicled on the card backs) and even more elaborate designs... never got any fiction.

Well, beyond the stories I made up in my head as I played with my toys.  And really, what could possibly top those?

Goellner and Moody come pretty close, with this fan-comic being a really fun romp through the irreverent insanity of the Playmates toyline.  Just about every villain from the toyline is present at the barbecue (and even a few heroes who probably shouldn't be there, like the Fugitoid) and playing "Where's Waldo" with them is 90% of the fun.  I considered listing them all in the Turtle Tips section, but that'd just be ruining the game for everybody. 
 
Some of the details present on the toy-accurate character designs really ought to be acknowledged, though.  I'm talking about obscure stuff such as Pizzaface's meatball-shaped Siamese twin, which was a part of his toy's prototype but dropped from the release sculpt.  Even Tatsu is there, in what appears to be his Konami video game design (he was a boss in TMNT: The Hyper Stone Heist for the Sega Genesis).

The art is lively and chaotic, but not a mess to read.  And the dialogue is a collection of weirdly strung together quips, catchphrases and non sequiturs which make the juvenile strangeness of the proceedings all the more hilarious.  Shredder seems to be the only character with an ounce of self awareness.

It's only 7 pages (8 if you count the spread as two), but it's a really fun 7 pages.  The quantity of Easter Eggs and sight gags give it a considerable re-read value and I've probably spent more time poring over this fan-made short than I have most full-length comics from official publishers (I don't know why I find the toy-accurate wind-up Mouser smoking a cigarette so funny; I just do).  So give it a look and maybe check out some of Goellner and Moody's other stuff.  You can claim you have better things to do, but you're lying.

(Also, I admit defeat in that I can't identify the two robots in the foreground that Leo beheads.)




Sunday, August 11, 2013

Turtle Power!


Originally published in: Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #1
Publication date: November, 1991

Story and art: Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney
Colors: Guy Romano

“Turtle Power!”

Summary:

Flying in the Turtle Blimp, the TMNT finally locate Krang’s secret base and prepare to attack.  Spotting them on his security system, Krang fires a harpoon missile which bursts the blimp.  The Turtles crash-land in the moat and then infiltrate the base through a sewage pipe.

Krang, thinking the TMNT are finished, returns to his fiendish experiments.  He feeds tainted dog food to a Scottish terrier, which mutates into a lumbering dog monster.  Krang bellows with joy, believing that he can sell his “retromutagen dog food” on the open market and use it to mutate an army of vicious monsters under his control.


The Turtles finally arrive on the scene and tell Krang the jig is up.  Krang sics the dog-mutant on them, but the TMNT take it down with a net.  They corner Krang, but he ejects from his bubble-walker with a rocket pack and escapes.  Suddenly, a countdown mechanism initiates and the Turtles escape the base just before it self-destructs.  Having foiled Krang’s evil scheme, the Turtles celebrate their victory with a catchphrase or two.

…In the real world, the entire adventure is revealed to have been imagined by a small boy named Bart, playing with his TMNT action figures.  Bart’s mom comes home and finds the living room a mess (the Turtle Blimp toy submerged in the aquarium and their Scottish terrier bound up in a blanket).  Bart’s mom scolds him for playing too messily in the house.


Turtle Tips:

*Fans often identify the dog-mutant as being Rahzar.  However, the monster is never named in the comic and the only similarity it shares with Rahzar is being a canine.  "TMNT II: The Secret of the ooze" (Rahzar's first appearance) was released in March of 1991, only a few months before this issue was published.

*A Roachmill comic (along with a TMNT comic) can be seen on the last page.  Roachmill was a title created by Hedden and McWeeney.


Review:

Hedden & McWeeney at perhaps their least offensive, “Turtle Power” is a fun little story with some REALLY lavish coloring by Romano.  In fact, I’d say it’s one of the best-looking stories in Turtle Soup #1, which is a pretty high compliment considering it keeps company with stories by Michael Dooney and Anderson/McCollum.

It’s a bit strange to be seeing all these Fred Wolf and Playmates TMNT-isms in a Mirage publication, but more surprisingly is that they’re implemented without any cheap jabs.  By 1991, the Mirage comics seemed desperate to distance themselves from the popular kids arm of the franchise, often taking potshots at every “Cowabunga” or what have you.  While one might interpret the ending as a subtle way of reminding the audience that the Fred Wolf and Playmates TMNT aren’t the “real” TMNT, I couldn't find any malice in it.  If anything, it was just a refreshing reminder that when kids play with their toys and tell their little stories, they don’t see the same things adults do when they’re watching.

Not a heck of a lot to say about it, other than that Hedden and McWeeney make a few errors (Leo and Don getting mixed up on page 2, Krang referring to regular old mutagen as “retromutagen” when retromutagen is supposed to undo mutations).  Still, the elaborate art and excellent coloring make up for any setbacks and at 6 pages, this kind of story is exactly as long as it needs to be.


Grade: I (as in, “I wonder why they colored the Turtles with red bandanas, though, if this was all a reference to the Fred Wolf/Playmates stuff?  Guess it was another error”.)